Twitter Introduces Exclusive $5000/Month API Tier: Boosting Access and Capabilities

Twitter’s latest offering, the Twitter API Pro, has been unveiled, targeting start-ups with a monthly price tag of $5,000. This new tier provides developers with the ability to retrieve up to 1 million tweets per month and post 300,000 tweets per month, while also granting access to the comprehensive archive search endpoint.

Earlier this year, Elon Musk’s company introduced these new pricing tiers. Initially, Twitter had planned to discontinue access to its free API tier, but it revised its decision by allowing content provider bots to have free access to 1,500 tweets per month.

This introduction of the new tier aims to bridge the gap between the basic tier, priced at $100 per month, and the enterprise tier, which comes with a substantial cost of $42,000 per month. Twitter specifically labels this level as suitable for “start-ups scaling their business.”

Following the announcement of the new pricing structure, many developers and founders expressed a desire for a mid-tier to accommodate startups that couldn’t afford the significant spend of nearly half a million dollars annually.

While the Pro API tier may meet the needs of some individuals, it falls short in addressing the requirements of businesses operating on tight budgets. These businesses would still need to allocate $60,000 per year.

For example, the posting limit of the Pro tier might suffice for certain bots, but developers would encounter challenges in generating funds through subscriptions or donations to sustain the service in the long run.
It is important to note that Twitter has yet to devise a solution for researchers and academics. In March, the company mentioned its exploration of new avenues to cater to that community, but no official announcement has been made by the social network.

During a recent event, Musk expressed his belief that Twitter was experiencing a “comeback arc” following his implementation of significant cost-cutting measures.

The future of Twitter’s evolution into the realm of startups, business, and academic research remains to be seen.